Childress caters to anglers

Editor's note: Each Monday, the staff of the Globe-News Regional Department will feature a recreational, historical or tourist attraction that can be completed in a day trip from Amarillo.

CHILDRESS - In a day and age where personal watercraft and ski boats seem to be reproducing like rabbits, the lowly angler searching for a quiet spot on the lake to practice his craft can often feel like an endangered species.

But a two-hour drive to Childress is all it takes to step into a world where the fisherman is king, the pinnacle of fresh water fishing - lunker bass - are plentiful, and personal watercraft are not allowed.

This Shangri-La of bass fishing is referred to locally as Baylor Lake, which paired with the next door Lake Childress creates a haven for fishing unlike any other in the area.

"The lake (Baylor) is known all around this area for bass fishing because there's nothing quite like it around here," said general manager Roy Rapavi. "It's been written up in all the (fishing) magazines and people drive from all over to fish here."

Baylor Lake gained its reputation - and a No. six in the state ranking by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Service - because no other lake in the Panhandle consistently produces such huge bass, Rapavi said.

The walls of his bait shop are a gallery of Polaroids showing nothing but largemouth bass weighing 8 pounds and up, including a couple 14-plus pound lunkers.

Rapavi, who has been running the lake so long he can tell what type of weather is coming by the way the minnows school in his bait tanks, said Lake Childress also produces some good bass. They tend to be smaller, but they are more plentiful.

The key to Baylor's success in producing big bass is Rapavi's dedication to making sure every fish has a chance to grow into a lunker.

When he took stewardship of the lake in 1980, he started a campaign to convince anglers to release everything they caught, and the campaign quickly caught on.

"Right now, I'd say we probably have the highest release rate of any lake in Texas," Rapavi said. "I tell them that if you put a 6-pounder back in the lake and come back next year, you might catch her when she's a 7-pounder. The idea is conservation, and it's really caught on."

If an angler insists on taking fish home, the limit is five bass, each of which must be at least 12 inches long.

Another reason the lake produces such big bass is the type of fish living there. Since 1980, the lake has twice been stocked with a hybrid Florida bass that creates a bigger fish when it mates with native bass populations, Rapavi said.

Although the lake consistently produces some of the biggest bass in the area, Rapavi cautioned the casual fisherman against assuming lunkers are easy to pull out of the water.

"But how do you think it got that big? By being stupid? You've got to be a good fisherman. You've got to think about how you're fishing."

Rapavi said a variety of artificial lures work on the lake's bass, including spinners, buzz baits, crank baits and a variety of rubber worms, but the key is knowing how to work the baits.

Baylor and Childress are small enough that bank fishermen can work the lakes, but a lot of the best fishing requires a boat, he said.

The fishing is good from late February through the summer until the first good frost, but the fish tend to take off the hottest months of the year - July and August.

"The fish are smarter than the people," Rapavi said. "They won't do squat when it's 100 degrees out. The people are all up there sweating in their boats, and the fish are down there in the deep, cool water, and they ain't coming out."

If you need something to keep the family occupied while pursuing trophy bass, the city of Childress has several sites to keep them busy for the day.

Childress holds tight to its history, which is closely linked to the railroad, as evidenced by Engine 501. It was presented to the city in 1959 by the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad and is displayed in R. Wright Armstrong Park.

The Childress County Heritage Museum also holds the keys to the city's history with a variety of displays showing what life was like in the early years.

Jenny Lou Taylor, director of the museum, said one of her favorite displays is a painting of a plane overflying the long-closed Childress Army Air Field.

The painting shows a day scene, but when Taylor flips a switch, the white light turns off and a black light comes on.

The painting is magically transformed into a night scene, complete with lights illuminating the runway and stars shimmering in the sky.

The museum also displays two saddles won by Roy Cooper, one of Childress' most famous residents. The beautifully detailed saddles mark two of Cooper's seven world champion rodeo titles. Other displays include turn of the century kitchens, churches and a doctor's office.

Also, visitors should check out the Michie Building, which houses an impressive array of antique cars, ranging from a Model A Ford to several late 1960s muscle cars. Many of the cars are owned by the Red River Car Council, whose members allow their vehicles to be displayed in the building.

One of the best times to schedule a trip to Childress is July 19-21, when the city celebrates Old Settlers Days.

The celebration is centered around a three-day rodeo, which has been going on continuously for 113 years, making it one of the oldest in Texas.